Due to a recent surge in people spamming MANY (not just ours) different forums with porn through the private message system, we have made a change effective immediately. From now on new members on the forum will not have the ability to send private messages, or view the sites member list, until they reach an undisclosed number of posts. This will hopefully take care of any problems. We are a PG forum and have to think about protecting our younger members. Sorry for any inconveniences this may cause.

There are companies and individuals that pay people (work at home/freelancing) to register at forums/chat rooms/dating services/etc simply to spam private messages as well as the message boards with their propaganda. Some are legitimate (meaning not pornography, but not welcome), but annoying, much is geared to whichever subject matter they believe the forum population would be interested. We've had this policy at a forum I mod, and a few I visit frequently (with much more stringent rules due to the heady subjects discussed) for a couple or so years now.

Logged

People can be made to believe any lie, either because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it's true.-Terry Goodkind

Have you thought about just leaving moderators pm's available? I'm new here and I am having the hardest time getting help. I don't want to clutter up the forums with my questions that aren't exactly related to the subject areas that are already up, but I can't pm anyone either so I have to say I'm a bit frustrated. I understand the reasoning behind your decision, I'm just frustrated, pure and simple.

Hi, my name is Mary and I'm very new at this whole posting thing. I currently have 4 adorable rat girls and am just having the greatest time with them!! I saw this group and have joined but I know NOTHING and don't half understand all the RULES and REGS!! I just want to connect with other "Rat People" and continue to learn and enjoy my existing Rats!! Thank You

Is this still the case? I've sent (or at least I thought I sent!) two messages to an individual regarding a possible adoption and it looked as though they went though, but then when I checked my outbox and there was nothing in it. Confused! Haha

Ohhh ok, I was confused because I thought my account was screwed up or something. Hopefully I'll meet that threshhold without too much posting because I tend to get too addicted if I post too much, but I want to be able to send messages.

Two thoughts: First could someone bookmark or sticky this topic? There are several different rules/regs threads and it can be a new confusing. Might help keep them from getting lost in the shuffle. Second, it took me a while to find the place to save outgoing messages. For other newbies: click the "profile" tab up top, then "modify profile" on the lefthand toolbar, then "personal message options" on the lefthand toolbar, then click the box next to "Save a copy...."